Following a loss, homeowners and business owners find themselves in a very vulnerable situation. In these circumstances it is very easy to be misled or taken advantage of by an insurance adjuster. You pay your insurance premiums faithfully in the hopes that you will never need to use it. And let’s face it, most of us do not find ourselves urgently in need of a new roof very often. When a loss does occur, though, it is extremely important to know your rights.

While every policy seems to differ a bit in what exactly is covered, the general theme is to restore the homeowner to “pre-loss condition.” What does this mean? We have seen some insurance companies that attempt to force the homeowner to select particular contractors based solely on lowest price. The results are almost always a poor quality “patch” job, which usually results in diminished property value. If you have ever experienced a loss, you may have been told, “Get three or four estimates and send them to us.”